When physicians are asked to state the relative risks of classical predictors of heart disease (such as smoking or diabetes) many, according to this article, are likely to cite a figure of between "10 to 15 times." This is not only wrong, it is dangerously wide of the mark. Most of the predictors have only…

Here is a novel idea many employers might want to begin implementing: start treating your employees like customers. Why? Because it can save money. I recently came across this article explaining how Genentech has begun developing apps to help make its sales force more productive. One problem area identified by the company was that sales…

Earlier today I had the opportunity to deliver the closing keynote presentation at the Alabama Hospitals Associations' Annual Leadership Conference. Before my talk, I had the great pleasure of listening to Bill Ward, the director of the Master Health Administration Degree at the Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health. At one point, Bill brought…

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on not understanding it." Upton Sinclair I really enjoy the above quote because there is so much truth to it. I was especially reminded of the quote after reading this article about the efficacy of spinal surgery in today's Wall Street Journal.  According…

Effective today, June 8, 2009, General Motors and Citigroup are no longer components of the Dow 30. In and of itself this news has no great relevance, but it does highlight how fast today’s economy continues to change. As I mentioned the other day on my other blog (www.jumpthecurve.net), many people think that "tomorrow will…

With all of the information now pulsing around us, it is easy to forget that "we don’t know what we don’t know." I constantly try to remind my clients in the health care sector of this simple fact. A case-in-point is the extraordinary strides being made in the field of genomics — which, due to…

In 2003, I wrote the book, ”The Next Big Thing is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change the Future of Your Business.” In it, I outlined the many ways in which nanotechnology will impact the pharmaceutical industry in the near future. Recently, researchers at Children’s Hospital in Boston have uncovered a method of reviving a…

Chris Anderson, the editor of Wired, has written an excellent article entitled "The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes Scientific Method Obsolete" in which he convincingly argues that massive amounts of data, in combination with sophisticated algorithms and super powerful computers, offers mankind a whole new way of understanding the world. Anderson believes that…

A few weeks back I had a posting  entitled "Change or Die … Unnecessarily” in which I provided a few examples of how our inability to unlearn could, quite literally, cost some people their lives. Well, the other day, one of my favorite thinkers, Josh Wolfe, sent me a copy his weekly newsletter, The Forbes/Wolfe…

WebMD has interesting article suggesting our behavior can influence how are genes act. According to research by Dean Ornish people can change how certain genes perform by making modest adjustments to their life style. Ornish found that by engaging in exercise and eating a more low-fat diet "more than 500 genes changed the way they…